Hōkūleʻa Update | Feb 10, 2017
We departed Galapagos today at about 10:45am local time. Our paperwork for customs clearance and fumigation were the last items we needed to get before departure. We pulled up anchor and made our way out of the harbor, and said aloha to Santa Cruz Island.
We are currently under tow; the last land sighted was Espanola, which is where we started our reference course line. The moon is full tonight, washing out all but the brightest stars and planets. Venus and Mars set in the evening; Ke Kā o Makaliʻi is overhead including Orion, Makali’i, Sirius and Taurus. We are currently heading just to the East of South, and will continue this heading until we find wind that allows us to sail. That will likely be about 6-8 degrees South latitude. There are light winds at this time coming out of the East South East with a swell that matches the wind direction. Cloud cover is about 30% and mostly isolated to the horizon.
Our young and talented navigation team – Lehua, Haunani, Jason and Noe – have come together to embrace their kuleana as the latest in a very long line of traditional navigation. After being locked in their rooms studying for the last few days (they are amongst the few thankful for the delay in departure, as it allowed for last minute cramming), they have fully accepted the role and will use these next few weeks to put their years of training into practice.
As the nav team sets their sights on our next horizon, we also took a moment to reflect on what we are leaving behind. Departure day in Galapagos was filed with the same awe we have experienced every day in this sacred place. This is truly a place where the nature gets to be nature, as the iguanas walked through the harbor within feet of the crew, and the sea lions lounged on the benches usually reserved for people. The Galapagos was stunning at every turn, from the moment we arrived and the giant tortoises came into view, to the last full day we had at Tortuga Bay with the pelicans in the air and baby sharks in 8 inches of water; this has proven to be one of the most encouraging stops in the voyage. Encouraging because we can find these places that are filled with biodiversity and have the kinds of protections that give us hope for the future. But this hope and these protections are really embedded in the people. The people we met on this stop showed us true aloha. They helped us with whatever we needed and showed us that terms like mālama and aloha ‘āina are not lost on those who do not come from Polynesian islands. And so we said a hui hou to Champy, and Norman, and Scott and their families today, but we know we will see them again soon. And we thank all of them for helping to keep the Galapagos wild.
We’ll be standing by 72,
Nā’ālehu
Hōkūle‘a Homecoming – Save the Date
Sign up for updates and be the first to know as we continue to detail homecoming festivities during the week of Hōkūleʻa’s homecoming
on June 17, 2017!
We found a solution through a local marine electronics store that could land us a new unit in a couple of days, and of course a couple of days was all I had before our departure window closed. So the day before departure, three of us – fellow watch captain 
I remembered seeing that familiar yellow and red DHL sign on the main road less than a mile away from the harbor, so Doc and I set out on foot with our boxes and a fresh email with the address our equipment should be sent to. The DHL sign was small and a little faded, but as it does everywhere in the world, it appeared to demark some place of business that ships items internationally. There was a small, locked wooden gate and an unfinished concrete wall blocking the short walkway to what could be the place we were looking for. On the wall was a panel with a single button and a speaker; we pressed the button, and immediately that universal loud apartment building buzzing sound was heard, followed by the click of the gate opening. We set out down the path towards the open door, and walked into a room that had been painted bright DHL yellow at some point, perhaps before Darwin came to the Galapagos on the Beagle. In the midst of this faded yellow, we were relieved to find a very nice young woman who was more than happy to send our boxes several thousand miles. At least I think she was happy, since she smiled and spoke nicely to the Doctor – while it is lucky for me the Doctor speaks English, it has been lucky for all of us he speaks Spanish too. We worked out that we had two boxes and they needed to be sent to a different corner of the planet than the one we currently occupy. The next part of the conversation went like this (through the doctor/interpreter):
So we three – the Doctor, and I, and a guy we found to show us the way (sounds like the beginning of a joke, or a great story, huh?) – set out on the multi-block tour with our satellite parts to the post office. We weighed the boxes and walked back along the same cobblestone road down to the water’s edge to the DHL office. Cautiously proud of our accomplishment, we anxiously awaited the next hurdle. After some wrangling about the address and where these items were going, the conversation continued:
Spending time with the indigenous peoples in Panamá was mission critical for this stop of the Worldwide Voyage. We’ve learned from our hosts that Panamá has a diverse group of indigenous peoples that play an important role in the country’s cultural diversity. For a little background, there are seven distinct indigenous cultures, which are divided into four major Indian groups, each of which presented their welcome and dances at Sunday’s community gathering, colorfully dressed in their traditional garb. The four groups are the 
Some of the things that the crew and the students got to see were the huge tortoises that this island group is famous for as well the habitat in which they thrive. Students also got to squeeze into a lava tube to check out what was inside. At the end of the day everyone came away with a deep appreciation of this very special place.
Original crew member